River's Edge
by Incognito Mode
Summary: We got the call about an hour ago. Marie Logan's car careened off the road and over a cliff. She died upon impact. And Garfield Logan, Marie's nine year old son, was nowhere to be found... A recount of that night from Artemis' perspective and how it affected her.


I'd never really met the kid before. I knew M'gann just absolutely adored him though. The guys all really liked him, too, Conner even begrudgingly so.

But like I said, I wasn't there for the mission to Qurac, so I didn't get to meet him. And this, this was not how I imagined our first meeting would go.

We got the call about an hour ago. Marie Logan's car careened off the road and over a cliff. She died upon impact. The details were still a little sketchy. At the time, we still didn't have the best idea as to what had happened. It wasn't until later that we found out what Queen Bee did.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. So we got the call, and I swear that this was the first time I had seen M'gann so freaked out since the psychic training incident. She almost went to, and would have gone, into hysterics if we hadn't gotten the next piece of information.

Garfield Logan, Marie's nine year old son, was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, his body wasn't at the crash site, but he wasn't on the Animal Preserve either.

That's when we first started suspecting foul play. Had someone taken him?

We didn't have time to ponder for too long though, we had our mission. Find and retrieve Garfield Logan. We were all geared up and ready to go in a matter of minutes, Wally left without us, knowing he could get there faster than the Bioship can take us.

Even M'gann flew the Bioship the fastest she's ever pushed it, we made it there in record time. When we arrived to the foreign country, we met up with Wally. He had already checked out the site of the accident and a mile long perimeter around it. Nothing.

Later, Wally pulled Kaldur to the side and whispered something to which Kal only nodded gravely.

After considering whatever it was that Wally told him, Kaldur started giving out orders, and we listened and obeyed with a dire seriousness that didn't come around too often. He, by himself, was to check out the crash site again just to be sure while the rest of us fanned out.

Later I found out why Kaldur didn't want anyone going with him. Apparently they hadn't pulled the body out yet. It was a gruesome site from what Wally told me later.

_"I've never seen so much blood, Artemis. She was all bruised and cut up. It was horrible." _

So we fanned out and searched. For anything. After about an hour and we still hadn't found him, we stopped looking for Garfield and started looking for clues. Footprints, pieces of clothing, anything that suggested that he was at least there.

Wally and Conner covered the most ground by foot, while M'gann and Robin scanned everything (M'gann with her mind and Robin with his tools). I was starting to feel a little useless because the best I could do was just walk around and call out his name. A little while later, we got a message from Kaldur via mindlink.

_"Evidence around the crash site suggests that Gar was here fairly recently, perhaps around the time of the accident." _

_"And? What else? Did he run away, was he taken? Kaldur'ahm, what else?!" _

_"I am sorry, M'gann. But there is nothing else that I could make out." _

_"I should be there with you, Kal. I can help you, Batman trained me to investigate these kind of scenarios." _

_"No. You will be of far more use looking for Garfield. That is our priority... I must go now, officials have just showed up. Keep in touch." _

The mindlink went really quiet after that. No one wanted to say anything unless they had found the kid. While they were talking, I somehow found myself out of the jungle and into a plain. Not too far off, there was a house in the distance. And a sign.

"Logan Animal Sanctuary" it read. This was where they lived, I realized.

I was starting to wonder why nobody had searched the place earlier. I mean, it was way out of the way from site (about twenty kilometers), but I imagined that if I was a little kid and I just went through what Garfield did, the first thing I would want to do was go home.

My instincts were starting to prove correct when I noticed a fairly recent path of footprints trodden into the yellow grass that lead towards the house. Not wanting to get everybody's hopes up by telling them I've found him, I decided to investigate a little bit further just in case it turned out not to be him.

So I followed the footprints, making it a game to put my feet exactly where the others were. The farther along I did that though, the more I came to realize that they were definitely made by him. The strides weren't very far apart from each other. Whoever had put those prints down there, were done by a smaller person.

So I started running. I ran across the field, jumped over the fence, and finally made the last stretch in a sprint. I approached the house, and as I approached it, it became apparent that it wasn't just one house. It was entire compound made up of several different buildings. There were all types of animals around it, from gazelles and zebras to just chickens and geese.

And then there he was. On the front porch, by a rocking chair. He was just sitting there, all huddled up with his arms around his knees which were brought up to his chest. His eyes were looking directly in front of him, but I didn't think he was seeing anything.

I could have called the others right then and there. Maybe I should have. But the look on his face stopped me.

If I called them over, they would all start running towards us. Wally would get here first, followed shortly by Conner and then M'gann and finally Robin and Kaldur. They would have overwhelmed him.

We needed to take this slowly.

So, quietly and gently, I walked up to him. He didn't seem to realize I was there, or if he did, he wouldn't acknowledge me.

"Gar?... Garfield?" I said, making it up to him and getting down on one knee to be level with him.

"Hey, Gar, I'm Artemis. I'm friends with M'gann," at her name, he finally took his eyes off the horizon and brought them to look up at me. He had green eyes, set in a tan and freckled face framed by shaggy auburn hair. He looked a lot like Wally, actually.

"Should we go inside? I can call over M'gann and Conner if you want me to."

It took him a little while, but eventually he nodded. So I got up, and offered him my hand to help him up. He took it and without letting go, I lead him into his home.

Closing the door behind us, his eyes then scanned the inside as if from a new perspective. Like this was his first time seeing it, too.

Then, his eyes landed on two plates set on the small kitchen table. One had half-eaten chicken nuggets and a can of soda on the side. The other plate had just a salad and a half empty glass of wine. His gaze lingered on that plate.

She hadn't even finished her last meal.

Something started to happen. His brain started working again as a realization came to him. That salad and that wine wasn't finished, and it _never will be_.

Until now, I don't think he had truly processed what had happened. He had just went numb and shut off everything, but now he was starting to realize that he would never see her again. Never hear her voice again. Never fight, laugh, or cry with her again.

His mom was gone. And he had been left behind without her.

Dry eyes finally smarted with tears as he did the only thing that anyone could expect him to do, he started to cry.

And I of all people didn't know how to deal with this situation. Why did it have to be me to find him first?

_"M'gann, he's here! He's at the Reserve, we're inside his home." _

_"I'll be right there! Thank you, Artemis." _

By now the kid had fallen to his knees, his hands were brought up to cover his face as his body was wracked with sobs. Listening to a child cry is one of the worst sounds ever. Hearing a choked up, broken "I want my mom" through those tears was even worse.

Before I could bring myself to cry along with him, I heard someone on the front porch and more or less slam the door open.

"Gar!" M'gann cried out and was by his side just as quickly. She didn't hesitate when she got down to wrap her arms around him, bringing him in close.

"I'm so sorry, Gar," she muttered into his hair, close to tears herself. Behind me, I heard the others approaching as well. The boys stepped into the house, and when they did, I decided I had enough. This was too much for me.

I turned around, grabbed Wally by the hand, and marched us both out.

Before he could protest, I buried my face into his chest and hugged him tightly. I hadn't felt so at lost since the Tornado siblings trapped my friends.

Wally didn't say anything. He just hugged me back.

That night, after the entire horrible ordeal was finally over with, I got back to the apartment pretty late. The others ended up staying at the Cave, deciding to spend the night there to take care of last minute business and to do their best to comfort Gar. But I had to go home.

I walked in quietly, and dropped all my stuff at the door with a loud thud. Standing there, leaning against the wall, I went over the day again and again in my head. Before I knew it, I found myself walking down the hallway and into the master bedroom.

I went over to the side of the bed, and fell on my knees. Brushing her hair out of her face, I wrapped my arms around her frail body and started crying for the first time in a long time.

"Artemis?" my mother groaned tiredly, "What's wrong, Arty?" She inquired, wrapping one arm around my shoulders.

"Nothing, mommy. I just love you. So much."

I ended up sleeping with her that night, something I hadn't done since I was a child.

* * *

Today, I'm living in Palo Alto attending Stanford University with my boyfriend. When people ask Wally or me why we left the life behind, we say it was because we wanted to get on with our own lives. We had done enough for the Team, and no one really blamed us.

But I still remember that look on Gar's eyes as clearly as if I had seen them yesterday. I was not going to let that happen to me. I wasn't going to lose her. Not like that.

* * *

**AN: First time I've ever tried writing in first person. Not sure if I like how it came out. I'm not sure where this story came from. I just wanted to write something sad apparently. **


End file.
